June 26, 2015 — New York, New York
AJC saluted the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision recognizing that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. AJC had filed an amicus brief urging the result that the Court reached today. AJC General Counsel Marc D. Stern issued the following statement: “The Supreme Court decision is the culmination of a four decades-long campaign by the LGBT community to put an end to second-class citizenship. Criminalization of sodomy; ‘don’t ask, don’t tell;’ and other discriminatory bars to full and equal LGBT citizenship have fallen, one after the other. “The Court, by a 5-4 vote, toppled the largest remaining barrier—marriage. As the Court observed, ‘changed understandings of marriage are characteristic of a Nation whose new dimensions of freedom become apparent to new generations.’ “Today’s decision does not end the battle for legal protection for LGBT equality—in employment, for example. And as the Court recognized, its decision does not silence debate about the moral and religious validity of same-sex marriage. It does mean that LGBT citizens’ right to marry is not merely an act legislative grace, but of fundamental right.”
